Electrical Design Overview

An effort was made to make the wiring as simple as possible. Due to the number of sensors required to accurately move the robot around the field, the project ended up using nearly all of the digital I/O and analog output pins. A detailed description can be found at the link to the right.

﻿Control of the motors was achieved using a provided L293 driver board, which required four digital output lines. In addition, two of the pins required PWM output. A detailed connection diagram is provided at the link to the right.﻿

Three IR sensors were used to detect the black tape on the playing field. However, interface circuity was also required in order to properly detect the difference between white and black. Further implementation details are provided at the link to the right.

To detect the bumper (for dispensing balls) and to detect the walls of the arena, contact switches were used on the front and back of the robot. Pull-down resistors were used to create a consistent digital signal. The wiring diagram is provided at the link to the right.

Two sonar sensors were implemented to determine the distance from the line before and after requesting balls from the bumper. These sensors required power, and at most two signal lines for triggering the sensor and for determining the time it took for a pulse to register. Additional details are provided at the link to the right.